It's been almost a year, but I finally updated my site!

Here I'll post nice things about myself and interesting stuff in my life. Also, I would like to thank my dad for doing the majority of the work on this webpage (check out his page here).

LAST UPDATED: 5/24/2009

Recent Updates:
-Ben's Art Gallery (Click Here to See It!)
-WATCH MY NEW CLAYMATION, "BAD DREAMS," (HERE!!!) (Or watch it below!)
-Photos from the last musical "Beauty and the Beast" (March 2009) on Facebook! (See the album here). All pictures taken by Richard Cronk.

If you want to contact me, either e-mail me at ben@roncentra.com or leave a comment on my YouTube page (here).

On YouTube, I am MissingLink07, the great claymator! My claymations are for an ongoing school project, so between documentation and planning for that and a fairly busy daily schedule, it takes a while for me to make a movie. FINALLY, MY FOURTH MOVIE IS HERE! Watch "B.C. CLAYMAITON: BAD DREAMS" on YouTube, or watch the video below.

For this movie, I animated the movie in Flash CS3, edited some of the photos in Photoshop CS3, and edited the clips and recorded the sound in iMovie. I took approximately 1,500 photos and animated at a constant 10 frames per second, resulting in my highest quality movie to date!

Here is another movie I made last year to detail my movie-making process. I used new programs this year, but I followed the same steps.



    -- Ben Centra

ART:
Besides claymation, I am interested in Graphic Arts and Animation. So far, I have taken 3 classes in school covering computer graphics and animation. In the Advanced Graphics class, I made five major works, and they are all here in my website's new feature, BEN CENTRA'S ART GALLERY: CLICK HERE TO SEE IT!

In the animation class, I made three big movies, one of which was featured in my school's annual art show. Here is that movie, called "Get Me Outta Here!":

This summer, I will be teaching a Digital Arts and Animation class for my school's summer enrichment program. Just thought I'd say that :-).

I'm also a part of the stage crew for my school's Drama Club. I uploaded all of the picutres from the last musical "Beauty and the Beast" (March 2009) to Facebook (see the album here). All pictures taken by Richard Cronk.

MUSIC:
As well as being a director and artist, I am also a musician! I do play the clarinet, but I definitely prefer the guitar. I started teaching myself to play a few years ago, and I'm pretty good by now. I have two amateur songs I made uploaded to YouTube, and I'm currently learning a few cover songs ("Aqualung," "Carry On Wayward Son," and a few others). For now, here is my newer song, "Carousel":


    -- Ben Centra

Let's see... I'm a Junior in high school, I'm really smart (taking all honors and AP courses), I play the clarinet and the electric guitar, I am a 2nd Degree Black Beld in Tae Kwon Do, as well as a Training Instructor, I'm in my school's computer club, I work on the stage crew for the school plays, and I'm in the Spanish Honor Society! Basically, I'm a nerd, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Favorite T.V. Shows: House, Fringe, Scrubs, Chuck, The Simpsons, Futurama, South Park, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report.

Favorite Movies: Basically any comedy and most action movies

Favorite Music: I'll listen to basically anything (except Country or Rap :P) but recently I've come to like Progressive Rock. Some of my favorite bands right now are Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull, Kansas, Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Spock's Beard, The Flower Kings, The Tangent, and other Prog Bands.
    -- Ben Centra